Friday, June 29, 2012

Ending of an Era / New Blog

It is essentially a continuation of my old Blog known as Hypocrisy. That blog is now gone, deleted from Blogger, as is my old Flickr account where all of my photos were stored.

I had to start over because things have changed dramatically in the last few weeks. I am no longer looking forward to retirement. I AM retired. I was let go from my job of 18+ years on June 26, 2012. No reason was given and no explaination was requested. It was time to go and I really don’t miss it much. I feel badly for all my ex-coworkers who will be left in the lurch by my departure, but it is now something that management will have to deal with.

While this was unexpected (I was planning on retiring in 2014) this does move the dates up a little, which means that my wife and I have to scramble a bit to get our ducks in a row. However, overall, the future looks bright Much better than it did when I was working for my last employer.

One important lesson that I have learned over the past few years, is that you never know who you can trust in this world. With the exception of family and possibly your pets, everyone else looks out for their own best interest. There is no real sense of community where we live here in Phoenix, Arizona.

Which is why my old Blog and Flickr account had to be deleted. Even though these accounts were only viewable by specific individuals, certain people managed to hack into them or find out about their contents. I often used these internet outlets as a release point to channel my frustration and confusion about various aspects of my life so that others could read and comment on them. But beware! There are lurkers out there that will use almost anything you say online against you. While I never named specific individuals or locations in my writings, various people put two and two together and complained about what I had written.

As I have stated in past blogs, everything that I wrote was open to disucussion and feedback. I welcome the critiques from others and the open exchange of ideas. If I write something and you think and am an idiot, tell me so, I curious to know why you think that way. However, much to my horror, there are legions of lurkers out there that have no such desire. Their mind-set is to hide in the shadows and throw rocks. It would appear that society isn’t ready for an honest discussion and open therapy. They prefer to peer through closed blinds and call the police whenever they see your dog marking their tree.

So it has been a tumultious month, and our future is now totally different, but it is a much brighter future. One where, for the first time in a long time, there are boundless possibilities as opposed to waiting in frustration.

Hopefully, this will allow me a bit more time to get back to writing and reading what others have to say. For those of you out there that have commented and given me feedback in the past, you have been a god-send. We are all each other’s therapist in that vein and as long as the comments are constructive (or funny) they can never be bad.